Just 1 Inch {Guest Post by Brendan}

There are many things that can be measured with precision and many others that can not. We all take the size of certain things for granted (say a Subway sandwich) and then with other things you settle with..."oh just a little"...like when getting your haircut. All haircuts start off the same exact way - you sit in the chair, they ask you how you doing, they cover you up with a robe of some sort and then position you directly in front of the mirror and say....."so what would you like me to do". You have thought about what you want before you show up and try to come up with an eloquent way of explaining it to them. Some people bring pictures or other details, but it really comes down to the fact that you are there to get your hair CUT.

Well today was one of those days, not for me, but rather Charlotte Grace. If you have seen pictures of her recently you know that she has a good amount of blond hair. Anne has been perfecting some little girl hairdos - pigtails, parts with hairclips and bows as well as a number of other ways to twist, turn and pull Charlotte's hair. Charlotte is not overly fond of this, always looking to use her favorite two words before you are even near completed with the styling...."all done"! She will move her head, squirm off in one direction or any other tactic that she learns in her close monitoring of other 'small people' that she is with. Regardless of this behavior, Anne has worked very hard to learn a thing or two and as Charlotte's hair keeps growing...it seemed more and more things could be done.




If I had not been with Anne, there is no way that I would believe that she only told the stylist to take off "just 1 inch". Granted this conversation was in English and not the lady's first language, but still Anne said 1 and she clearly understood that word. So 1 what....inch? That could be confusing for the lady as we are in a culture that uses the metric system and as such she may not know what the exact measurement of an inch is - but she did repeat the word after Anne and did not hesitate or ask for clarification. This led us to believe our desires would be followed and Little Girl would have a nice trim to even out her hair for further growth.

From the 'Before' and 'After' photos below, we will let you wager on how many inches were taken - but from my estimate it is close to 3 inches....2 more than expected when it all started. Anne is sadden by this result, but is recovering nicely during an afternoon nap and confident statement of....."it will grow back"!

BEFORE

AFTER

Cupcake Demolition

Since I've been MIA from the blog while staying in Texas, I haven't posted much about goings-on here. :) I was filtering through the pictures my mom has been taking - of Charlotte - while we've been here and thought of something REALLY cute to share with you.

Enjoy Charlotte's step-by-step cupcake demolition from her 1st birthday.....


Step 1:  Check out the goodies

 

Step 2:  Wait to see if you hear "No, No"

Step 3:  Stick one finger on the cupcake

Step 4:  Stick multiple fingers on the cupcake
and begin taste-testing

Step 5:  Pick up the cupcake with both hands
and begin smearing the icing over your high chair

Step 6:  Get a big chunk of cupcake to put in your mouth

Step 7:  Remember to give BIG smiles to all your family

Step 8:  Add some icing to your face and hair

Step 9:  Eat the cupcake!!

Step 10: Cupcake Demolition Complete

The Other Side of the World (Guest Posting by Brendan)

If there is one thing that I vividly remember from my childhood - it is the time I spent 'living on the other side of the world'. I recall bits of details from my time in Texas when I was young, but how does that compare to seeing the Great Pyramids from a cruise ship on the Nile or traveling throughout Europe for sporting events in high school. I have been to London a few times on business since high school and every time I go through a turnstile for the Tube I can picture 5 punk American teenagers jumping over them for one entire day and running before security caught up to us and made us pay for our fare (or possible worse now that I am reflecting). Getting on an airplane bound for X international location has never worried me or made me anxious in any other way than wanting to see what is there when I arrive. I think a lot of this natural adaption comes from my mother's attitude. After all, she did leave New York for Texas at point in time when many New Yorkers would have died from the cultural shock. We can thank the Bush's for enlightening the rest of the country to the lay of the land in the Great State of Texas.

As I sit here in Hong Kong this evening, after putting Charlotte Grace to bed, I can only imagine what she will remember when she is older. I do not think it will be the hassle of taking her first passport photo, packing her room at age 3 months to move to Madrid or even her time exploring Hong Kong from a comfy ride in a daddy powered stroller or baby carrier. I am sadden by this a little, but so thankful for the Lord's care and love for our family during this time on 'the other side of HIS world'. Charlotte has remained healthy (as far as we can tell from our last Spanglish doctors appointment) and seems to be taking nicely to the loving attention that she receives daily from her wonderful mother. The two of them encounter some of the most interesting situations during their time together and I feel that it will remain something that Anne remembers for the rest of her life; something to the effect of "what am I doing with a baby in X location, when I have no idea what they are asking me".

In making this guest posting today there is one thing that I wanted to get into writing to ensure that we remember it from our time in Hong Kong. I believe it strongly relates to the people that we have encountered while out touring and their love for children - well I will rephrase to say my child. Charlotte is no doubt an adorable baby but the amount of attention that she attracts in Hong Kong is a little ridiculous. We have caught people on numerous occasions taking a quick picture of her or doing a little double take into the baby stroller and talking to her while we pass by. None of this however compares to our experience at Repulse Bay Beach this past Saturday.

People should have been there to enjoy the beach and the surroundings, but instead Charlotte captivated them and their camera lenses the entire time. It started with one or two people taking pictures and shortly turned into a receiving line for everyone at the beach. I am not joking! We had some people ask, others just come up and took pictures and then even more that would sit down on the blanket with Anne and Charlotte while their family took their pictures. Anne and I are undecided on what to think about this, so for now we will just smile and shake it off, hoping that we do not see her on some Chinese website or other in the coming days. After swimming out to a floating dock off the coast a little ways on Saturday and looking back to see 20 people surrounding the umbrella and blanket where I left Anne and Charlotte, there are mixed emotions. I had a moment of panic that was ultimately undone by a moment of laughter when I see people bending down to pose with precious little Charlotte Grace. I am glad that she can bring joy or excitement to their time in Hong Kong - I just hope that is all it is for!

One of our own pictures (probably on a few other
cameras as well)!!!

Time will tell what memories she will have, for now Anne and I will hold this one!

Swimming Pool to Emergency Room - our baby's first swimming experience

Charlotte & Daddy in the big pool

Charlotte has always been a very sweet, happy baby, but there aren't too many things that stick out to me as things that she loves. She's never gotten overly excited when we sing silly songs to her, or give her a bath, or when she plays with a specific toy.

So when we met up with some friends at a Madrid public pool last Saturday, we were so excited to see how much our Sweet Pea loved the water.

We had not been to a public pool in Madrid before, but friends had told us about their experiences. Some were good, some not so good...especially with babies. So, I was kind of prepared for us not to stay long but we quickly found that it was much like public pools that we'd experienced in the States....oh, except for the part where half the women had no swim tops on and children were running around naked! :)

Hortaleza Public Pool - Madrid

I thought it would be a good idea to try the "infantil" area first - aka. kiddie pool. This is where we saw all the naked kids and moms without tops. I guess they don't have to worry about tan lines. Charlotte had fun there; she crawled & splashed around and we were able to get some pictures...although pictures these days are getting rather difficult because she doesn't like to sit still long enough to smile for the camera...oh well, lots of candid shots!

We wear LOTS of sunscreen -
we're a really pale family!

After the kiddie area, we decided to see how Charlotte liked the big pool. This is when she really came alive! Pictures could not capture how much she loved splashing around in the water. She was all smiles! It was so fun to watch her enjoy something so much.

I really wish we had tried the pool earlier in the summer since we're leaving for Hong Kong today, but now that we know she likes the water so much we'll plan plenty of water-related outings in Hong Kong.

You may be wondering...where does the emergency room play into all this? Well, we have been so so so so blessed with how healthy Charlotte has been in her short life - especially since we've been living in Spain and our options for doctors are not the greatest. Please don't hate me when I tell you that she has yet to be sick - she's had some icky days adjusting to travel or teething, but she hasn't even had a cold yet.

So is it really any surprise that she picked up some kind of virus from the public pool? No, not really. I should have been expecting it, but I was totally caught off guard when I thought she was pretty hot on Sunday then checked her temperature to find out it was 103!! That scared me!

Thankfully she didn't really have any other symptoms of being sick, but she did continue running a fever the following day so we called the doctor (who said she spoke English but doesn't :)). She told Brendan she wanted us to take Charlotte to the emergency room, so we did...Charlotte's first ER experience.

I didn't take any pictures, but this was actually one of the best ER visits I've ever had in my life. You wouldn't think that would be the case since it was my own child I was taking and we are in a foreign country and can't communicate that great. But this pediatric emergency room was great! It was a short walk from our flat, so Brendan took a taxi home from work then we walked up there. It was also surprisingly efficient...most things in Spain are "manana". They take their sweet time, so we expected to be there a while. I'm pretty sure we were in and out in an hour! Have you ever experienced that in the U.S.?! I haven't.

I wish you could have heard how they pronounced Charlotte's name. It was so funny! We listened carefully for it and then went back to the room they called us to. The nurse or doctor or some medical person was already in there waiting for us. He checked Charlotte out and everything seemed to be fine besides her temperature, so they gave us some acetiminophen and sent us home. Brendan listened carefully and communicated pretty well with the guy (and we had our Spanish-English dictionary handy...thanks, Bradley!). Not bad for our first Kinne family emergency room experience...not bad at all.

I'm so thankful my daughter loves the pool, but I'm ever more thankful that God protected her little body and helped her fight off an infection without much issue.

AND we are off to Hong Kong this evening! I'm sure we'll have plenty of interesting stories to share with you over the next 6 weeks.

*Check out our Kinne Photos for more pictures of our swimming adventure!

Where did 4 years go?

At London Gatwick Airport on our way to
our honeymoon in Turkey - July 2006

I'm determined to blog more. So I've decided that every Friday I'm going to post a little story about something - exciting or boring - that has happened in the Kinne family in the past week (or if our week has been REALLY boring then I'll stretch to the past month :)). My mother-in-law, Karen, or Momma K, has been encouraging me to write more...she's thinking more along the lines of publishing books, etc...I'm thinking let's just keep the blog alive!

*Warning - there are NO pictures of Charlotte in this blog post. If that really upsets you, just check out our Flickr photos...her life in pictures is well-documented there.

Where did 4 years go?

It seems like just yesterday that Brendan and I were getting married in Evergreen, Colorado, but so much has changed in our lives in 4 years! There are the obvious things like now having a baby and living in a foreign country, but there are some not-so-obvious things as well. While we were watching our wedding video the other night, we couldn't help but laugh at ourselves...not the wedding itself or the vows we made...but we laughed at what we thought love was then.

Last summer shortly after our anniversary, I wrote this blog post which pretty much sums up how our idea of love has changed over the past few years. Every year I think I will be more amazed at how God is changing us.

For the first time since moving to Spain, Brendan and I went out on a real date - just the two of us! A friend from our church in Madrid came over on Sunday night while Charlotte was asleep - she goes to bed early, ya'll, and Spaniards eat dinner late so that works out well for babysitters! As I often do, I gave Brendan the dubious responsibility of finding a restaurant. He came up with a bunch of ideas, but he kept running them past me so I shared my honest option. Something like, "Hmmm, looks good...I mean I don't know what any of the food is, but I'm sure it will be great, sweetie!"

So, we finally decided on simplicity - a restaurant that offers very few items, all of which are edible, and we had heard it praised by numerous people. Not a fancy date restaurant but a new place to try and we were sure we'd leave full. This place...

Casa Mingo

Pollo asado was the main dish - a wonderful roasted chicken. Our tortilla espanola and cider were also very good, but the shrink-wrapped salad was a little puzzling. :)

The real fun began after dinner when Brendan took me on an uphill climb to get to a park that had nice views of Madrid. Umm, yeah, it was hot and my feet weren't happy since I had decided to wear "date" shoes not "hiking" shoes. But Brendan really did redeem himself by spotting a heladeria, an ice cream shop, and we got some really great ice cream!

We hope to have a date night every month since we now know people we trust to leave with Charlotte. It was really nice to get out of the house alone with my husband. I did feel "naked" without a stroller - I don't even have a purse here, and I'm not going to carry her diaper bag when she's not with us! Going out also reminded me how fast she has grown. When she was first born, I thought I'd never get out of the house again much less go on a date with Brendan! Ok, I knew those things would happen eventually but it seemed like it would be forever....I kinda miss that tiny little baby who would let me hold her in my arms. :) I guess that could be a whole different blog post - Where did 9 months go?

Happy Anniversary to my incredible husband, Brendan!